Doll-A-Day 2023 #221: Wooden Dollhouse Family

   Today's doll is a whole set! It's this wooden dollhouse family

  I have talked about Bin Stores before. We always go on the day when everything is $1, or even 25 cents. Not too long ago we were there, looking for some things to help Emma with her wedding plans, when I spotted a dollhouse doll in the bin. I got excited to have spotted a doll find, and began looking for more dolls. I dug around in the bin and managed to find six dolls altogether: a grandma, a grandpa, what i thought were two kids, a boy and a girl, and two dolls, that. although they were the same size, one must be a toddler and the other one a baby. I kept digging around trying to find the parents. I never found any more though, and afterward, looking at the ones I did find, I realized that the two I thought were the kids were the same size as the grandparents. (And they had to be grandparents, because they have grey hair. This is the doll world.) 

So, they weren't the kids, they were the parents. The dad doesn't look like a grown up, with his bowl haircut. (But then, even Moe Howard was a dad.)

  The weird thing was, a few weeks later we went to that same bin store again, and I found two more dolls that matched the set, and they turned out to be the kids! A boy and a girl. Whether they were there before and I just didn't find them, or they had just been the only two lost out of another set, I don't know. But I have reunited the family. And now I can see the size difference between the mom and the daughter for example.

  So what are these dolls like? Well, they have wooden ball heads, and square or rectangular wooden bodies.

They can stand very well on their own...

...except for the babies of course. The toddler is more like the other dolls in that she has hands and feet sticking out of her clothes, unlike the baby, who has footie pajamas on. But she doesn't have the wooden feet that allow the others to stand.

The baby of course is just a small stuffed doll, and meant only to be cuddled or laying down.

The arms and legs are wired cord, so they are bendable. That means the dolls can sit... 

...hold the babies...

...play. skip, dance, run...

and have a bit of life to them. The arms are obviously one piece, because when you move one arm, the other one wants to move too. You can move them independently though, if you hold the other one down when you move the one.

The clothes aren't removable. They seem like they would be, but they can't be pulled over their heads.

   The dolls with hair, and that's everyone but the baby, have thread/yarn hair, except for Grampa, who has sort of faux fur hair. Grama has a braid in her hair.

Mom and daughter have ponytails. Mom has one, and the daughter has two.

But the daughter has a loop in back from one side to the other.

Which isn't that important, but is a tip off to the fact that maybe these dolls aren't so well made. If you look, there is some gloppy glue holding the feet on, and the cord on the sides of the bodies.

  I'm not sure I'd trust the feet to stay on, and they could be a choking hazard to very small kids. The bendable limbs are also a bit stiff and might not be that easy to bend for little hands.

  There are also some paint mistakes. Grama has a spot on her forehead, and the brother has a streak on his chin.

 

I actually found this same family on Amazon. You can see them HERE. They cost about $12 for the set, which is pretty cheap. 

  Those are the dolls for today. See you tomorrow.